Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service

An anecdote is a brief and often illustrative story. Anecdotes feature heavily in Raving Fans as part of its parabolic structure. When the Area Manager and Charlie visit a Raving Fans business, they always meet the owner, who shares the lessons they learned in customer service with the Area Manager. They do this through anecdote, talking about their early struggles in the market and the pitfalls they encountered. They then explain how they overcame these problems by implementing the service techniques that Charlie recommended to create a base of Raving Fans. In some cases, the Area Manager also shares anecdotes concerning poor customer service (e.g., receiving a cold dish at a restaurant), which support the work’s overall argumentation by way of contrast.

Blanchard and Bowles make extensive use of humor throughout Raving Fans in an effort to make their customer service advice easier and more entertaining to read. The bulk of the humor comes from Charlie and his interactions with the world around him. His first appearance is abrupt and jarring, as he suddenly materializes in the Area Manager’s office amid a minor crisis.